Van Stadens Bridge | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Coordinates | 33°54′32.64″S25°11′49.32″E / 33.9090667°S 25.1970333°E |
| Carries | Road traffic |
| Crosses | Van Stadens River |
| Locale | Eastern Cape |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Arch bridge |
| Height | 140 metres (460 ft) |
| Longest span | 198.10 metres (649.9 ft) |
| Location | |
 | |
The Van Stadens Bridge is a concrete arch bridge over the Van Stadens River in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. It carries road traffic for the N2 national highway.
The Van Stadens Bridge on the N2 was opened on November 11, 1971. Just 12 days later, a Uitenhage man jumped to his death, and its reputation as the Bridge of Death grew from there. [1]
A R1-million video-camera surveillance system, paid for by private donors, was installed in August 2005. [2] Gauteng journalist, Franz Kemp, raised the funds after his daughter Inge had jumped off the bridge in 2003. [3] The local police and pedestrians have rescued some twenty people from jumping off since that time. [4]
One such dramatic rescue took place when a man from Humansdorp wanted to commit suicide from the bridge but was stopped just in time by Freddie van Niekerk, who had just walked past him and said he "felt a sudden chill, as if God was speaking to me" and grabbed the man. Van Niekerk endangered his own life and battled for 45 minutes to stop the man from jumping. Van Niekerk remained with the desperate man, even after the suicidal man had grabbed his benefactor's arms and threatened to pull him off the bridge, too. Van Niekerk had to save that same man a second time that day when he escaped from the Thornhill police station and started jogging back towards the bridge again. [5]
The Thornhill police department, which has a specialist-counselling team on hand for the bereaved relatives of these suicides, retrieved the crushed bodies of an unnamed little girl, an older boy, and a man on whom they found a suicide note. They believe, based on the suicide note, that the three people died shortly after October 31, 2008. Piecing together the events leading to the tragedy, police came to the conclusion that the man must have thrown the two children over the side, sending them plummeting to the rocky floor of the gorge, before jumping himself. The bodies were not found in one place, suggesting that one of the children might have panicked and tried to flee after the first victim went over the side. [6]
Captain Anton Smit said the traumatic discovery was made by two Port Elizabeth teenagers who had gone for a walk during a picnic near the Van Stadens Wild Flower Reserve. Bryan van Vuuren, 17, and his friend Andre Trauernicht, 18, first discovered the body of the boy. The teens alerted Thornhill police station and showed them where they discovered the body. Soon afterwards, the body of the man was found a few metres away. There was also a note indicating that there was another body somewhere among the bushes. The note also mentioned three women who should be notified of the deaths. [6]
A police sniffer dog was called in and the body of the girl was discovered several metres further from where the other two bodies were found. The bodies were not severely decomposed and were identifiable. There was no sign of a vehicle parked near the bridge. [6]
In 2013, a 2,7m high steel mesh pedestrian barrier was constructed to deter suicide jumpers. [7]
The Prince Edward Viaduct System, commonly referred to as the Bloor Viaduct, is the name of a truss arch bridge system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, connecting Bloor Street East, on the west side of the system, with Danforth Avenue on the east. The system includes the Rosedale Valley phase and the Sherbourne Phase, an embankment built to extend Bloor Street East to the Rosedale Ravine from Sherbourne Street. The Don Valley phase of the system, the most recognizable, spans the Don River Valley, crossing over the Bayview Avenue Extension, the Don River, and the Don Valley Parkway.
Jumping from a dangerous location, such as from a high window, balcony, or roof, or from a cliff, dam, or bridge, is a common suicide method. The 2023 ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for jumping from a high place is X80*, and this method of suicide is also known clinically as autokabalesis. Many countries have noted suicide bridges such as the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. Other well known suicide sites for jumping include the Eiffel Tower and Niagara Falls.
A suicide bridge is a bridge used frequently by people to end their lives, most typically by jumping off and into the water or ground below. A fall from the height of a tall bridge into water may be fatal, although some people have survived jumps from high bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge. However, significant injury or death is far from certain; numerous studies report minimally injured persons who died from drowning.
The R102 is a Regional Route in South Africa. It is the route designation for all old sections of the N2, thus it is a discontinuous road that resumes in areas where a new N2 has been constructed.
The N2 is a national route in South Africa that runs from Cape Town through George, Gqeberha, East London, Mthatha, Port Shepstone and Durban to Ermelo. It is the main highway along the Indian Ocean coast of the country. Its current length of 2,255 kilometres (1,401 mi) makes it the longest numbered route in South Africa.
The Colorado Street Bridge is a historic concrete arch bridge spanning the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena, California.
The Penobscot Narrows Bridge is a 2,120-foot-long (650 m) cable-stayed bridge that carries US 1/SR 3 over the Penobscot River. It connects Verona Island to Prospect, in the U.S. state of Maine. It opened in December 2006, replacing the Waldo–Hancock Bridge, built in 1931.
A suicide barrier is a structure intended to deter people from attempting suicide by deliberately jumping from a high place on a structure. Suicide barriers often consist of nets, metal screening, and fencing. Suicide barriers may be placed on tall bridges, observation decks, and other tall structures.
The Vista Bridge is an arch bridge for vehicles and pedestrians located in Portland, Oregon, United States. It connects the areas of King's Hill and Vista Ridge which are both in the Goose Hollow neighborhood. The MAX Light Rail line and Jefferson Street/Canyon Road travel under the bridge, and Vista Avenue crosses the bridge.
Van Stadens River is a river in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The river mouth is located about 30 km west of Port Elizabeth.
John William Warde was a 26-year-old American bank clerk from Southampton, New York, who committed suicide on July 26, 1938. He leaped from a window ledge of the 17th floor of the Gotham Hotel at 5th Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan. The son of a Long Island express agent, his 12-hour dilemma before jumping held 300 New York City Police Department officers at bay. They were afraid of making a bold move that might cause Warde to jump.
Port Elizabeth railway station is a railway station, located in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
The Bloukrans Pass is a pass through the ravine of the Bloukrans River on the R102 road between Plettenberg Bay and Jeffreys Bay in South Africa. The Bloukrans River forms the boundary between the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces. The pass no longer serves as the main route, as it has been bypassed by the Bloukrans Bridge which carries the N2 national road. The pass underwent major repairs during 2011 on the Western Cape side after flood damage in November 2007.
Grootrivier Pass, is situated in the Western Cape province of South Africa on the R102 regional road. The Grootrivier is one of various mountain streams that over millions of years have cut through the coastal plateau towards the sea.
The Eerste River, located in the Western Cape, South Africa, rises on Dwarsberg 60 km east of Cape Town at the head of Jonkershoek valley. The Eerste River catchment covers the eastern part of the Cape Flats lying to the west of the Hottentots Holland Mountains and south of the Tygerberg where the Kuils River tributary rises east of Kanonkop. The Eerste River is a short river; its length has been given as 40 km. The major tributary, Kuils River, is approximately 30 km long to its point of confluence with the Eerste River.
Wayde van Niekerk is a South African track and field sprinter who competes in the 200 and 400 metres. In the 400 metres, he is the current world and Olympic record holder, having set the record when he won the event at the 2016 Olympics.
Between 1937 and 2012, an estimated 1,400 bodies were recovered of people who had jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge, located in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States.
The C. H. Mitchell bridge, also known as the Mtamvuna bridge, is the second longest single span bridge in South Africa. The bridge's deck is suspended by a pair of cable hangers systems, which are supported by a cross-braced double steel arch. It is 206 metres (676 ft) in length and the highest point on its arch is 35 metres (115 ft) above the roadway.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
| Authority control databases: Geographic |
|---|
